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From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
2.
3.
Then, in this eastern city,
there are informal meetings such as we have described to you, where you may now see scores of members.
4.
7. The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own
members.
5.
This is a world clearing house for the Al-Anon Family Groups, composed largely of the wives, husbands and friends of A.A. members.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
It could almost be said that
we were born with it, for, as one
oldtimer recently declared, "Practically
never have I heard a heated religious, political, or reform argument among A.A. members.
11.
Here was something rare in the world -- a society which said it wished to publicize its principles and its work, but not its individual members.
12.
Seven -- The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own
members.
13.
But long ago, trustees and staff members alike found they could do no more than make suggestions, and very mild ones at that.
14.
Did anyone ever hear of a society which couldn't
somehow discipline its members and enforce obedience to necessary rules and regulations?
15.
In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references
in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship.
16.
Convincing testimony
must surely come from medical men who have had experience
with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to health.
17.
He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by A.A. members, and whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages.
18.
19.
20.
Even greater furors were provoked when A.A. members began to run rest homes and farms for alcoholics, when
some hired out to corporations as personnel men in charge of the alcoholic problem in industry, when
some became nurses on alcoholic wards, when others entered the field of alcohol education.
21.
Moved by the spirit of anonymity, we try to give up our natural desires for personal distinction as
A.A. members both among fellow alcoholics and before the general public.
22.
This doesn't mean an A.A. won't take advice or suggestions from more experienced members, but he
surely won't take orders.
23.
Groups have tried to expel members, but the banished have come back to sit in the meeting place, saying, "This is life for us; you
can't keep us out."
24.
25.
Like so much of A.A.'s basic text, those words have proved to be far more visionary than the founding members could ever have imagined.
26.
The stories added to this edition represent a membership whose characteristics -- of age, gender, race, and culture -- have widened and have deepened to
encompass virtually everyone the first 100 members could have hoped to reach.
27.
There was actually a time
when the press of America thought the anonymity of A.A. was better for us than some of
our own members did.
28.
With few exceptions our
members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with
their own conception of a
Power greater than themselves.
29.
All changes made over the years in the Big Book (A.A.
members' fond nickname for this volume)
have had the same purpose: to
represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and thereby to reach more alcoholics.
30.
31.
Since that time, editors and
rewrite men have repeatedly deleted names and pictures of members from A.A. copy; frequently, they have
reminded ambitious individuals of A.A.'s anonymity policy.
32.
33.
We took this violent new tack because here and there members had tried to make money out of their A.A. connections, and we feared
we'd be exploited.
34.
(*) The work of present-day staff members has no counterpart among the job categories of commercial organizations. These A.A.'s
bring a wide range of business and professional experience to their service at The General Service Office.
35.
Now and then, A.A. members have bought farms or rest homes where badly beat-up topers could find needed care.
36.
First off, they can be told
that the majority of A.A.
members have suffered severely from self-justification during
their drinking days.
37.
By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince
the membership that a new
light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic.
38.
We think it no concern of ours what religious bodies our members identify themselves with as individuals.
39.
... members in
a position of unqualified authority ...
BB
Appendix VII, Twelve Concepts (Short Form), p.575
XII. The Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority
over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion,
vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial
unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that
it never perform acts of government, and that,
like the Society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and
action.
40.
41.
Though the essays which follow were written mainly for members, it is thought by many of A.A.'s friends that these pieces might arouse interest and find application outside A.A. itself.
42.
Members of a family should watch such matters carefully, for one careless, inconsiderate remark has
been known to raise the very devil.
43.
One of the first members of A.A., entirely contrary to his own desires, was obliged to conform to group opinion.
44.
The Twelve Steps that summarize the program may
be called los Doce Pasos in one country, les Douze Etapes in another, but they trace exactly the same path to recovery that was blazed by
the earliest members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
45.
46.
Nor does it mean that the members of Alcoholics Anonymous, now restored as citizens of the
world, are going to back away from their individual responsibilities to act
as they see the right upon issues of our time.
47.
The American Psychiatric Association requested,
in 1949, that a paper be prepared by one of the older members of Alcoholics Anonymous to
be read at the Association's annual meeting of that year.
48.
Just as firmly bound by obligation are the
members of Alcoholics Anonymous, who have demonstrated that they can help problem drinkers as others seldom can.
49.
If not members of religious
bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the
principles we have been discussing.
50.
51.
... members of
the Conference acting as the ...
BB
Appendix VII, Twelve Concepts (Short Form), p.574
VI. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised
by the trustee members of the
Conference acting as the
General Service Board.
52.
53.
The General Service Conference, the board of trustees, and group committees cannot issue directives to A.A. members or groups.
54.
Some would start at the top and
come through to the bottom, becoming club members; others started in the club, pitched a binge, were hospitalized,
then graduated to education on the third floor.
55.
56.
57.
58.
We simply couldn't afford to
take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing
A.A. before the whole public.
59.
It presents an explicit
view of the principles by
which A.A. members recover and by which their Society functions.
60.
Bill W., who along with Dr. Bob S. founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935, wrote the book to share 18 years of collective experience within the Fellowship on how A.A. members recover, and how our society functions.
61.
62.
As we surveyed the wreck of
that movement, early A.A. members resolved to keep our Society out of public controversy.
63.
Drunk farms, educational ventures, state legislatures, and commissions advertised
the fact that A.A. members served them.
64.
We believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes.
65.
Women now make up more
than one-fourth of the membership; among newer members, the proportion is nearly one-third.
66.
67.
Doesn't nearly every society on earth give authority to some of its members to impose obedience upon the rest and to punish or expel offenders?
68.
69.
In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited
A.A. members to tell their stories.
70.
71.
Looking at this avalanche of mail one morning at the office, I paced up and down ranting how irresponsible and tightwad my fellow members were.
72.
73.
74.
Though the earning power of most A.A.'s is relatively high, we have some
members who never seem to get on their feet moneywise, and still others who encounter heavy financial reverses.
75.
76.
Taking advantage of technological advances, for example, A.A. members with computers can participate in meetings
online, sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country or around the world.
77.
These ideas he sold to fellow members with the same burning enthusiasm with which he distributed automobile
polish.
78.
Ever since, these friends
have reported A.A. with an enthusiasm which the most ardent members would find hard to match.
The 164 and More™ Book, eBook, and Web Site
are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
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and the A.A. Grapevine (A.A. Preamble only).
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164 and More concordance does not in any way imply
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Inc., or the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Further A.A.W.S. Inc. and the A.A.
Grapevine Inc. have no objection to the use of this material in the
164 and More concordance.
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